Post office closures. A&E cuts. Polyclinics. Heathrow expansion. As if Labour didn't have enough issues to excite local campaigners the plans for so-called 'Eco Towns' look to be another threat to Mr Brown's electoral chances.
MP for Lichfield Michael Fabricant marched with four hundred local people on Saturday in protest at Labour plans for an Eco Town within his constituency. He issued this statement:
"We acknowledge the need for additional housing and for affordable housing. But 8,000 new homes are already planned for Lichfield District and 25% of the larger developments will be affordable homes. And these homes need to be built where they are needed - Fazeley, Burntwood, and in Lichfield itself - not where Whitehall planners have stuck a pin in a map which will create a ghetto. Local Government know the area, not Downing Street.
"The so-called 'eco town' will not even be 'eco': we don't have the road system to support this development and it will cause additional pollution through traffic congestion. Nor do we have the schools nor the doctors to support such a huge town plonked on a sensitive greenfield site on the outskirts of Lichfield.
"I congratulate everyone who has turned up today. You will have sent a clear message to Government: the eco-town at Curborough and Fradley is neither viable nor welcome here".
Photograph shows Michael Fabricant with Richard Holloway and Chairman of FACT (Fradley Against Curborough Town). At the start of this year Peter Luff MP explained his opposition to eco towns.
